Anita Rachman, Jakarta – The Great Indonesia Movement Party's decision to form a confederation with six other parties would not pose a threat to bigger political organizations in the polls, analysts said on Sunday.

Prabowo Subianto, leader of the party also known as Gerindra, announced on Saturday its decision to ally with the Labor Party, Freedom Party, Indonesian United Ummah Party (PPNUI), Indonesian National Party of Marhaenisme (PNI Marhaenisme), Sovereignty Party and the Indonesian Unity Party. The move was seen as a bid to consolidate power for the next elections in 2014.

Yudi Latif, a political analyst from the Reform Institute, said Gerindra could not count on fresh support unless it forged close ties with its constituent base.

"Gerindra should look at the grassroots level. They should ask if the six parties have good links to the grassroots," he said. "Unless they do, I don't see any guarantee for them to survive in the next elections."

None of the six political parties in the confederation had garnered significant votes in last year's general elections.

Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a political analyst at the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said Gerindra was worried about talks between larger parties at the House of Representatives to support a proposal that would double the legislative threshold to 5 percent in the next elections. The threshold is the percentage of total votes a party must win in the elections in order to win seats in the House.

"[Gerindra is] worried because last year, it got less than 5 percent," Burhanuddin said. "Now, bigger parties aim to increase the threshold."

Burhanuddin said he was pessimistic about the confederation's chances of mustering enough votes to win more seats, adding that existing laws only regulated political parties, and not confederations.

Saan Mustopha, deputy secretary general of the Democratic Party, said the ruling coalition saw Gerindra's move as a way to "help revitalize the nation's democratic process."

"We don't underestimate it, but we also don't see it as a threat. We appreciate it," he said, saying the Democrats would push for an increase in the legislative threshold.

But Ahmad Muzani, Gerindra's secretary general, said on Sunday that the alliance was formed to build public trust – not necessarily to ensure the party's survival if rival groups agree to raise the bar to winning representative in the House.

"This is a confederation, not a merger, so each party will still have their own leadership in the future," Ahmad said, adding that the six member parties had considerable clout since they currently held around 450 seats in provincial and regional legislative councils nationwide.